Module Five Lesson Five: Improving Stage Presence: The Power of Videotaping for Singers
If you haven’t already, download the
Body Awareness Discovery Sheet
before you begin this lesson.
Transcription
Introduction to Body Awareness
In the last lesson, you learned how we communicate emotion through our bodies. In this lesson, you'll learn how to effectively communicate through yours. So how do you develop body awareness? Well, you can watch your favorite performers and try on their movements, dial up your body awareness in your practice sessions.
For instance, you can experiment with posture and movement when you're singing vocal exercises and songs. Sing in open and closed postures and see how they make you feel.
Added bonus, if your spine is straight, your ribcage expanded, and your chin tilted slightly down, your singing technique will improve.
The Importance of Videotaping
Last but not least, you can videotape yourself. Videotaping is the fastest way to see if what you're feeling on the inside is successfully showing up on the outside. Let's take a look at some ways you can experiment with videotaping. It's important to videotape everything, practice sessions, rehearsals, gigs, and then watch what you've recorded.
I know finding the time is challenging. After a performance, there are so many things to do. And if you're like me, it's hard to watch yourself on screen, but it gets easier when you do. Do it a lot. Remember when I shared that story about Cirque du Soleil in the module on practicing? They're the best in the business, yet they're required to watch a video recording of themselves after every show.
What a terrific way to get used to seeing yourself so you can learn and improve. Even if you don't feel like you have the time and hate seeing yourself on screen, try it anyway. I promise you, it'll be worth it. So let's do it.
Setting Up for Videotaping
First, let's talk about mindset. You'll play a few different roles as you go through this process, switching from engineer to performer to creative explorer slash scientist.
Each role has a different mindset for the task at hand. And it's helpful to remember to take a moment between them to refocus. You'll see what I mean in a moment. First up, it's you as the engineer, the person who gets the gear ready for videotaping. Grab your mobile phone and a tripod, and let's get set up.
So begin by setting up your camera. Make sure you can see your whole body in the shot. Next, get your backing track ready. Or, if you're accompanying yourself, tune your instrument and have it close by. If you sing with a microphone, have it ready to go, either in your hand or on a stand. If you're not practicing with a small sound system, don't worry about plugging your mic in.
You just need to have your setup as close to the one you perform in as possible. You can even use a stand-in for the mic. A hairbrush will do. Now test the levels of your backing track, microphone, and instrument, if you're using one. Important tip, make sure the backing track is loud enough to give you energy, but not so loud that you can't hear yourself.
You want to feel like you're in a performance situation, but not straining your voice to be heard over the track. Finally, turn the video camera on. Leave it on while you switch gears from engineer to performer.
Transitioning from Setup to Performance
So take a minute to transition from setup mode to performance mindset. In other words, get out of your head and into your body.
Feel your feet on the floor. Inhale, exhale and center your awareness in the here and now. Set an intention for the song you're about to perform. Reconnect to why you're singing it in the first place. Imagine where you are, who you're singing to, and why you're singing to them. Now, imagine the audience in front of you and the connection you want to make with them.
Lastly, turn on the backing track or start to play and sing through your song. This take will be our before picture, the one you'll watch to decide what to do next in your videotaping experiments. So sing as you usually would without thinking or trying to change anything. Ready? Okay, great. Now go do it.
And then come back here before you switch gears again to watch what you've recorded.
Reviewing Your Performance
Okay, you've done it. Now it's time to switch roles again, this time from performer To Creative Explorer/Scientist. Before you watch your video, remember. Be kind to yourself through this process, pretend the person on the screen is a dear friend, know they're doing their best, send love to them, and then focus on how you can help them improve using the tools you've learned in this lesson.
Here are some suggestions on how to watch your video. Have your body awareness discovery sheet in front of you. Use it to focus on what's happening in different areas of the body on screen. First, watch with the sound on. Then, with the sound off. When you watch without sound, you won't be distracted by your singing or playing and can focus on just one thing, watching your body in motion.
And, like in any practice session, notice what's working and what's going well. Give yourself some encouragement. Then, write down anything that doesn't look or feel right to you. Look for any distraction that takes you out of the magic of the performance. Is there too much movement? Too little? Is your body caving or collapsing in the chest or abdominal area?
Do you look like you feel adrift, or are you grounded? Make a note of what stands out to most that you'd like to change. That's what you'll experiment with next. Okay, now go do it. Grab your videos, some popcorn, a pen, and your Body Dynamics Discovery Sheet, which you can access below, and get to work. And don't forget, watch with the sound on first, then turn it off.
That way, you'll be focused on what you see, not what you hear. After you're done watching, come back here, and we'll try an experiment. One of the things that always amazes me when I go through this exercise, is the mismatch between how I feel when I'm performing versus how I look. Usually, I feel like I'm totally overdoing it, but when I watch myself on video, I'm often surprised by how little I'm moving and emoting.
Many of my students experience this too, but you might not. You might feel the opposite, like you're hardly moving, but are actually all over the place. Whether you're moving too much or too little doesn't really matter. What does is whether you can communicate what you feel on the inside, and have it match what you see on the outside.
In a way, it's exactly like everything else you've been practicing. Imagine a target. Reach for it and find the gap between what you imagined and what you did. Then rinse and repeat until you're confident you can hit your target or at least get close to it. Every time you reach for it.
Experimenting with Movement
So you've set up your gear, videotaped yourself, and watched your first take.
Now it's time to try an experiment. One of my favorites is one you've already used earlier in this course when you made an audio recording of your voice. Do you remember what it was? I'm talking about exaggeration. Remember that continuum between too much and too little? Well, let's use it for movement.
Imagine there's a line that goes from 1 to 10. 1 is no movement, and 10 is the most movement you can muster. Videotape yourself three times. The first time, start at 2. Some movement, but not much. Then videotape yourself at 9. Movement almost to the max. Then try a 5. Now watch your video again. Ask yourself what works, what doesn't, and then videotape again.
Keep experimenting with the different numbers on this continuum until you feel like you've found the intensity that aligns with the feelings you want to create. When how you feel on the inside matches what you see on the outside, hooray, you've done it!
You can use this exaggeration experiment in so many different ways. Play with whole-body movement, focus on just one part of the body or your facial expressions. videotape yourself close up and from across the room, have fun. Keep playing, experimenting, watching, reflecting, and learning.
Learning from Your Favorite Singers
Another way to experiment with video is to try on the movement styles of your favorite singers.
In other words, copy them. Prince did this a lot. He spent hours in his studio practicing moves that James Brown made famous. But of course, he wasn't a James Brown imitator. He took the moves he learned and injected his own style and personality into them. You can start by asking yourself what styles of movement traditionally go with the music I'm singing.
You probably already have some idea. Do some research. Watch artists who perform the styles you do and see where they land on this movement continuum. Then try copying them. Play around with stance and style. Videotape your experiments and then ask yourself some questions. What kind of movement serves the song?
What felt good to you? What felt and looked authentic in your body?
Authenticity in Performance
Speaking of authenticity, let's talk about what it looks and feels like in performance. As singers, we want to communicate authentically with our voices and our bodies. So, what does that mean, and how do you do it? First of all, no one is entirely original. We learn from watching others. When we copy our favorite performers, we add to our movement vocabulary.
The more vocabulary you have, the more choices you'll have when expressing emotion on stage. So, the more styles you try on, the more extensive your movement vocabulary will become. Eventually, you'll put that vocabulary to work in a way that's all your own. Then, your style will emerge, a mash-up of all your movement preferences, natural abilities, and practice.
So, if you echo the singers you love in your performance, Does that mean you're stealing from them or being inauthentic? It might feel that way at first, but over time, your personality and style will come through. in your body, singing, and performance.
Seeking Feedback and Next Steps
Sometimes you just can't see yourself objectively and figure out why your body language isn't communicating what you want.
If you feel stuck, here are some things you can try. Show your video to your voice teacher. Now that one might sound obvious, but there's so much to do in a voice lesson that it's easy to forget that your teacher can do so much more than help you learn how to sing. Ask for help with your performance skills, too.
You can get constructive feedback from a friend or colleague. Ask another performer you trust to watch your video and give constructive feedback. Find a teacher who focuses on body awareness in their studio and get some coaching from them. Take an acting class. Acting classes are a fantastic way to expand your emotional vocabulary.
Hooray! You've done it! You've completed Module 5. Raise a glass, give yourself a treat, a pat on the back, or a giant hug.
COMING IN WINTER 2024 is Module 6:
You've Got A Gig!
It's the next step on your journey towards the stage. You'll learn all about microphones, sound systems, and set lists. What to wear to feel comfortable and confident on stage, how to introduce songs and talk to your audience. Plus, tips for overcoming performance anxiety so you can perform your best.
See you there!
